Name: Patty O'RoarkeAge: 20Position: Steerage PassengerSexual Preferences: submissive lesbian virgin.Appearance: Patty, or Pat as she prefers to be called, is 5'4", skinny, with curly ginger hair, green eyes and freckles that extend most of the way down her chest. She is flat chested and has no difficulty whatever passing herself off as a boy.Personality: Pat is a little bit shy around strangers, but once you get to know her she has the Irish gift of the blarney. She can talk herself out of trouble as fast as she can talk herself into it. She is disguised as a young man because she feels she will be safer that way. However she takes no truck from anyone and carries a pocket knife to protect herself.Background: Pat was born in Belfast to Molly and Donovan O'Roarke. Donovan went to France in 1914 and was never seen again. Molly died in the great flu epidemic of 1918-20, leaving Pat to fend for herself. She did so by stealing. Picking pockets, filching from market stalls and the like. In 1924 she came to the attention of the IRA, who wanted to recruit her, but being a good protestant, she refused and fled to Liverpool. Over the next four years she slowly worked her way south, still pursuing a life of petty crime, always disguised as a boy.

On reaching Southampton, she blagged her way aboard the RMS Mystic and settled into a corner of one of the larger steerage cabins. Her greatest fear is being discovered to be a girl. She would kill any man who found out her secret, and has, in fact, done so in the past.

How's that, Zillah? Anything you want me to change?

Personally, I was just wondering when someone was going to make a character like this ... !

(That, and I had to look up "blagged", since I didn't have the vaguest idea what that meant. )

In other words, she's a stow-away! She talked her way onto the ship, possibly with some story about her parents already being on board, or maybe she just joined a large group heading up the gangplank into Steerage... Something like that anyway.

It's weird, though. When I was setting up Mars Colony, I had to turn down loads of players who wanted to create stow-away characters, because it simply was not possible given the scenario for someone to stow away on the space ship! Here, it's totally possible to have stow-aways, but no-one except me had created one!

I know she's not :p But at least my character has someone to interact with now! The fact that she's a thief and he's an ex-Inspector makes it ripe for interesting plot developments as well.

Very true... Hadn't thought of that.

Um yeah, to all the rich women on the ship... I can tell you for a fact that little Patty isn't going to stay down in steerage. She is quite adept at locks and is likely to be solely responsible for any valuables that go missing!

Now if one of you ladies would agree to treat the poor urchin very brutally and not hand her over to the authorities, she might be willing to be caught red-handed...

As of right now, this RP is closed for new characters. If you expressed interest in the RP either in this thread or by PM and didn't get around to submitting a character yet, you're fine - though please do send me your character concept ASAP for approval. Anyone else wanting to play who hasn't previously expressed interest ... sorry. This ship, so to speak, has sailed.

The OOC thread is now open. Please use this to discuss anything you want about the game, and to ask any game-related questions you might have. Do not post questions/suggestions for the game in this thread anymore - I'll be using it to wrap up some character approvals, and then I'll be shutting down this thread until/unless recruiting becomes necessary again.

The Cast of Characters thread can also be found here. Please, don't post anything there yourself. I've learned from the experience of others that while it's more work for the GM, it's easier if a character thread is maintained by as few people as possible. That way I can maintain formatting and bookkeeping in a way that works more easily for me. The first post in that thread features Branwen's overview sheet - I'll be adding other characters to it as they get approved.

I'm currently working on opening game posts, deck plans, and more character stuff. We should be on target to start this coming Monday (March 11) - hope to see you all then!

Name: Shannon Elaine BunburyAge: 21Position: First Class Passenger, Fiancée of Lieutenant Colonel Edward KlineSexual Preferences: HeterosexualAppearance: Shannon is of average height for a woman of the time, has dark brunette hair and blue eyes and a generous, typically disapproving mouth. She carries herself with excellent carriage at all times whether standing, sitting or otherwise. Personality: Shannon speaks slowly, clearly and with obvious elocution. Her manners are utterly unaffected, given to her neither by schooling nor lessons but by birthright. She is cordially polite but reserved with the lower classes, familiar when appropriately en famille, and formally proper in social settings of her own class without being conscious of it. Privately Shannon tends towards melancholy but maintains the renowned stoicism of her family's heritage and homeland.Background: Shannon is the third daughter of Thomas McClintock-Bunbury, 2nd Baron Rathdonnell. Rathdonnell is a peerage set in the County of Donegal, Ireland. The 1st Baron Rathdonnell, John McClintock, served as High Sheriff of Louth, Lord Lieutenant of County Louth and was raised to the peerage in 1868. He was succeeded by his nephew, Shannon's father. The family estate, Lisvanagh House, is outside Rathvilly in County Carlow.

Raised entirely at home by the governess and tutors, Shannon has the expected upbringing, education and manners appropriate to a young woman of the Georgian and Edwardian eras, and less of the post-Great War one. She knows horses, sheep and the woman's part of running a household and planning the great overgrown gardens. She is largely ignorant of modern culture and trends and fashions and a little uncomfortable around them and the outspoken, daring, smoking and drinking women who occupy it. She has been abroad, both to India and the Americas and spent a bewildering and fascinating six months in Southern Africa whilst her father traipsed about on safari.

She is affianced to Edward Kline and harbors some trepidation about the wedding, her husband to be and of course her marriage bed.Cycle's Character

Name: Lieutenant Colonel Edward KlineAge: 47Position: First Class Passenger, Fiancée of Shannon Elaine BunburySexual Preferences: HeterosexualAppearance: 5' 9", 162 lbs, grey hair (once dark brown) and brown eyesPersonality: Grim, dour, precise and intelligent. Kline is a man of few words. Slow to take action, he always assesses the situation first before deciding how to proceed. The war taught him patience. And pain. He will respond civilly to everyone around him, but will be slow to trust anyone. He respects the chain of command and expects others to abide by it too. Though often surrounded by others, Kline has few real friends in life. Inside, he is lonely, even though outside, he will never admit it.Background: Kline was a member of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) in the Great War. He has seen death. Up close and personal. Too often. He lost many good men to the carnage of the trenches. Worse, he lost wife--his beloved Monica--six months after returning home. He raised his then nine year old daughter by himself, as best as he was able. Somehow, something happened and Denise blamed the death of her mother on Kline. Today, Denise is married to a rich young man somewhere in New York. Kline hasn't heard from her in five years.

Kline was able to leverage his influence and connections to build and maintain a fairly successful copper manufacturing business, focusing mostly on higher grade wires and cables. The popularity of electricity led to an unexpected boon to his company and today, he is very well off. A man of humble beginnings (his parents, both deceased, were farmers from Iowa), Kline does not display his wealth openly.

Kline is on the Mystic, returning to the States with his new fiancée, the beautiful and elegant Shannon Bunbury. With the consent, albeit not the outright blessing, of Thomas McClintock-Bunbury.

They are due to be married by the Captain while underway and will consumate their vows before arriving on the shores of America.

Name: Shannon Elaine BunburyAge: 21Position: First Class Passenger, Fiancée of Lieutenant Colonel Edward KlineSexual Preferences: HeterosexualAppearance: Shannon is of average height for a woman of the time, has dark brunette hair and blue eyes and a generous, typically disapproving mouth. She carries herself with excellent carriage at all times whether standing, sitting or otherwise. Personality: Shannon speaks slowly, clearly and with obvious elocution. Her manners are utterly unaffected, given to her neither by schooling nor lessons but by birthright. She is cordially polite but reserved with the lower classes, familiar when appropriately en famille, and formally proper in social settings of her own class without being conscious of it. Privately Shannon tends towards melancholy but maintains the renowned stoicism of her family's heritage and homeland.Background: Shannon is the third daughter of Thomas McClintock-Bunbury, 2nd Baron Rathdonnell. Rathdonnell is a peerage set in the County of Donegal, Ireland. The 1st Baron Rathdonnell, John McClintock, served as High Sheriff of Louth, Lord Lieutenant of County Louth and was raised to the peerage in 1868. He was succeeded by his nephew, Shannon's father. The family estate, Lisvanagh House, is outside Rathvilly in County Carlow.

Raised entirely at home by the governess and tutors, Shannon has the expected upbringing, education and manners appropriate to a young woman of the Georgian and Edwardian eras, and less of the post-Great War one. She knows horses, sheep and the woman's part of running a household and planning the great overgrown gardens. She is largely ignorant of modern culture and trends and fashions and a little uncomfortable around them and the outspoken, daring, smoking and drinking women who occupy it. She has been abroad, both to India and the Americas and spent a bewildering and fascinating six months in Southern Africa whilst her father traipsed about on safari.

She is affianced to Edward Kline and harbors some trepidation about the wedding, her husband to be and of course her marriage bed.Cycle's Character

Name: Lieutenant Colonel Edward KlineAge: 47Position: First Class Passenger, Fiancée of Shannon Elaine BunburySexual Preferences: HeterosexualAppearance: 5' 9", 162 lbs, grey hair (once dark brown) and brown eyesPersonality: Grim, dour, precise and intelligent. Kline is a man of few words. Slow to take action, he always assesses the situation first before deciding how to proceed. The war taught him patience. And pain. He will respond civilly to everyone around him, but will be slow to trust anyone. He respects the chain of command and expects others to abide by it too. Though often surrounded by others, Kline has few real friends in life. Inside, he is lonely, even though outside, he will never admit it.Background: Kline was a member of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) in the Great War. He has seen death. Up close and personal. Too often. He lost many good men to the carnage of the trenches. Worse, he lost wife--his beloved Monica--six months after returning home. He raised his then nine year old daughter by himself, as best as he was able. Somehow, something happened and Denise blamed the death of her mother on Kline. Today, Denise is married to a rich young man somewhere in New York. Kline hasn't heard from her in five years.

Kline was able to leverage his influence and connections to build and maintain a fairly successful copper manufacturing business, focusing mostly on higher grade wires and cables. The popularity of electricity led to an unexpected boon to his company and today, he is very well off. A man of humble beginnings (his parents, both deceased, were farmers from Iowa), Kline does not display his wealth openly.

Kline is on the Mystic, returning to the States with his new fiancée, the beautiful and elegant Shannon Bunbury. With the consent, albeit not the outright blessing, of Thomas McClintock-Bunbury.

They are due to be married by the Captain while underway and will consumate their vows before arriving on the shores of America.

The White Star Line (and other ocean liner companies of the time) had most areas of their ships segregated into First Class areas, then Second Class and Third Class areas. (For purposes of this RP, I lumped Second & Third Class together into "Steerage", as adding that extra layer of character type seemed unnecessary to me.) First Class passengers could move down to whatever areas they wanted, but Second and Third Class could not move into First Class areas without special permission. There were a few "common areas" (such as some of the dining rooms) that were open to all.

For this RP, I'll be bending realism a bit - there will be more common areas than there would be on a real ship from that period. Also, I'll probably be a bit lenient about Steerage and Crew Members sneaking into places that they perhaps shouldn't be ... but if they do anything to attract attention to themselves in those restricted First Class areas, the crew will notice, and appropriate action will be taken. However, I think it's more important that all players in the RP get an opportunity to interact than to try and model a more realistic scenario.

To know if a thread is "Restricted" to First Class or not, I'll be putting one of the following headers as part of the first post for any given area:

FIRST CLASS ONLYSTEERAGE ONLYCREW ONLYALL PASSENGERS AND CREW

This should let you know what characters are *supposed* to be in a given area, and which aren't supposed to be there. Something to keep in mind. :)

Point for when we start: OOC rules are there to make the game work, but IC rules are there to be broken, provided the character is the sort that would break such rules.

What I'm saying is that little Patty is going to be sneaking around in places where she shouldn't be and if she gets caught she will blarney her way out of trouble... Otherwise there's not a lot of point to the character!

The header is to indicate what sorts of characters are *supposed* to be in a given area. That's all. It doesn't mean a Steerage passenger character isn't physically allowed in other areas, just that they aren't supposed to be in those areas.

IC, Steerage passenger characters can certainly go into areas reserved only for first-class passengers. And, IC ... there shouldn't be any surprises if there's consequences for such behavior.

Also, Chrystal ... can you repost this comment in the OOC thread? I'd rather have comments like this go there instead now. I'll repost my response once that's done, so more people can see it. Thanks!

Sexual Preferences: Bi-curious, Leans towards females but has had thoughts

Personality: He is very shy around authority figures but otherwise he is easy going and self sustaining. Has a slight interest in the unknown and wears a golden cross around his neck as a protection to the evils of the world.

Background: His birth is unknown as he was an orphan boy. He grew up in the streets doing what he could to survive and make his life better. He was a trouble maker at a young age starting fights, stealing things, always running into the law in bad ways. Yet he was lucky in the aspect that he always had the church ran orphanage to run back to.

The sisters of the orphanage taught him subtle life lessons making him a deeper more spiritual person, which would later, as he grew up, make him a more rounded citizen and human being. In the orphanage he gained many friends both male and female, and growing up he learned a lot of life lessons he couldn't have learned from the church sisters. Here he experimented with some of the other orphan girls opening up his sexuality, he even at times would enjoy himself with some of the other boys as they watched the girls bathe. Yet sometimes he wasn't looking at the girls.

All was OK until the orphanage fire.

When people died in the fire, the police needed a cause, a scapegoat, and he was it. Since his troubled past as a youngster it would be easy to pin the fire on him as a accidental murder. So to evade the police he ran and ran and ran, 2 months later he found himself working as a trimmer. Loading coal onto his assigned ship in port and then carting it to the stokers for usage. It was an laborious job but an honest one. A job that would keep him out of the eyes of the law. His plan was simple get paid, save up, cross the ocean to a new home and a new start. This majestic ship would hopefully be his last job before he could start his new life.